Centuria adds another glasshouse to book
Centuria has added another major tomato growing facility to its book.
The off-market leaseback deal for Victoria’s Katunga Fresh glasshouse, with the Van den Goor family, is believed to be worth $100 million.
The initial lease term is 20 years.
The rental agreement is also triple net.
It will be held by the Centuria Agricultural Fund which now holds five assets worth a total of $450m.
Elsewhere in Victoria, this includes a Warragul glasshouse which cost $177m (in a deal agreed to be settled in two parts) in 2021.
Last March meanwhile the manager spent $76m for a Guyra (northern Tablelands) tomato growing facility.
CAF also controls a Sundrop Farms backed property at South Australia’s Port Augusta which set it back c$70m in late 2022.
Katunga Fresh
Katunga, which care of lighting technology increases growing hours supplies all year round, has occupied the 21ha holding since 2004; it was one of the nation’s first adopters of glasshouse production, the buyer said.
Some 16,000 tonnes of truss tomatoes a year come out of there, as well as capsicums.
The property also contains packing sheds, water storage capacity, a bore water license and energy infrastructure (story continues below).
“We are pleased to partner with Katunga Fresh whose focus on high efficiency production systems provide it with a genuine point of difference in the marketplace and enables the operator to generate a consistently profitable supply of fresh tomatoes and capsicums all year round.
In the Goulburn Valley, Katunga is 230 kilometres north of Melbourne and 45 km that direction from Shepparton.
CAF grows
Fully occupied, the Katunga property’s weighted average lease expiry is 17 years.
“The Katunga facility is a high quality precision farming asset which aligns perfectly with our investment strategies and is backed by a strong tenant covenant,” Centuria joint chief executive officer, Jason Huljich, said.
“We aim to continue expanding CAF into one of Australia’s largest sector-specific agriculture funds providing investors with access to high quality real estate opportunities which in our view are critical Australian food bowl infrastructure assets,” he added.
CAF’s newest asset also includes parge packing sheds, energy infrastructure, bore water license and onsite water storage capacity.
Outside of the trust, Centuria owns another $150m of agricultural assets.
Including the CAF properties, these spread over 100ha and contribute to about three per cent of the manager’s portfolio by value.
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